Garth Arum is a solo project showcasing his work which he started to compose over 10 years ago and finished around 2003. As an anniversary he wanted to record everything again and show it to the world. It consists of material from 4 albums; all re-recorded following the chronological order that he followed ten years ago.

Garth wanted to take experimentalism one step further, adding elements of ambient sounds, classical compositions and electronics. The album starts with a beautiful intro of a harp before exploding into amazing vocals, drumming and guitars which literally takes my breath away! I feel goose bumps running down my arms & shivers down my spine…what an impressive start!

The intro track slows before a piano piece brings in the second track. Once again it explodes with heaviness bringing in so much variety in styles, it’s hard to review as it draws you in, and I feel I am unable to move…it’s just totally incredible! The vocals are deep, death style which balances out the track perfectly with softer backing vocals, which take over, before going into some amazing guitar solos, riffs and melodies, which follows some beautiful clean vocals too, as well as fretless bass, synths, drum programming and keyboards. The synths are demonstrated best on track 6 ‘Labyrinth of lies’, giving the album a different direction and keeping your attention throughout, mid-way through the album, again using the harp against the heavy guitaring, which is just genius. With so much diversity and different vocal styles, each track brings in something different, but are all as incredible as each other! The album was composed throughout the last fifteen years and not all the tracks are as heavy as some feature female vocalists; Cecilia Tallo, Lady Carrot from Aegri Somnialends, Slo from Smohalla and Camille Giraudeau also from Smohalla and Stagnant Waters; bringing in a beautiful classical/folk metal side to this album.

Track 10 ‘Yearned freedom’ (feat Camille), was also another personal favourite as it did show elements of black metal…my favourite genre, which just shows this album has something for everyone!

Garth Arum states that he is inspired by dreams and fairy tales and it is nothing but a deep voyage towards one’s inner self, venturing further into the human psyche. I think this is clear and shown in his songs and lyrics as you can hear the influences by the music from the 90s, from new age, atmospheric black metal, avant-garde, death metal to symphonic rock….this album has it all!

The album slows down on the last track, ending the album nicely with Cecilia Tallo voice, over what seems to be a dance beat, before slowly drifting off to nothing! I was quite sad this album was finished, but in no way lacks anything…I can take a big sigh of relief.

On the whole this is one album that will literally stop you in your tracks and grabs your attention immediately; it is so unique and wonderful. I will be very surprised if this album doesn’t get flooded with high reviews after its release later this month. Personally, I really cannot state how much I love this album!! This will definitely be in my Top 10 of best releases this year…in fact I think I have to listen to it again, and again and again!